User blog:PassTheToiletPaper/Reviewing MPB2
I've went on several stints on why MPB2 does not hold up to it's predecessor, but I feel like it's time to finally put my words into something more solid and cohesive. Anyways, I really was excited for MPB2. The old game was broken, and it really seemed like a great time for a sequel to a game I really did love. The last updates loleris was pushing on the game were concerning to me. The "balancing" update threw me off some of my main characters, such as Adriel and Drew. It also removed some key characteristics that made other characters fun to play as, namely Julie and Red. I'm glad it did open me up to playing as other characters I rarely used, such as Lara and Cupcake. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that I still miss running around shooting people with an SMG-styled rifle. For those who has joined Nettimato's test server on MPB, you would've noticed that he has opened up to a lot more classes of characters. I digress. This blog post is about MPB2. Anyways, as developement on MPB2 went on, I grew concerned. When the beta of the game was released, I joined on the occasion to check out progress. I think I noticed like, several things off the bat that set off a red flag. * First Person Only I'm not an FPS person. I can barely aim on it. This point is on my end, but it's still a drastic change for me to shift from third to first. * Customization On paper, it sounds nice. "Hey man, look, your very own Mad™ Character!" Yet, this drew up some problems. One, this techincally meant that every person was the same. No more characters. No more strategy on who counters who, or who's effective against what. I can no longer tell what type of gun that person is carrying from a distance. Knowing is half the battle, and I already lost half the battle. Two, if everyone was the same, what the heck was the point of customization? Sure, that person may have a Tier 4 hat or whatever, but it's meaningless. I can still kill them as easily as someone decked out in the starting slacks. All that Tier 4 hat says is that they spent more time on the game than I did. Three, there's no charm. Your character is basically devoid of any personality, and you can just chalk it up as a carbon copy of yourself. Whatever you like, it likes. That small blurb used in MPB did a great job of establishing a personality, and the community was able to build off of it. The best you can do in MPB2's scenario is make an edgy original character. * Crates The currency used in this game are rubies. You can only get them if you level up, so of course I'm going to be stingy about spending them. Yet, the only way I can spend them is by gambling? One, this doesn't provide incentive to continue playing the game. I'm here staring at this crate. Instead of getting an item I know I will like, I'm banking on luck to bring me what I need. If I spend my precious time (and therefore rubies) all just to get an item I probably won't use, I already know my time was wasted. Two, I don't even know what's in the crates. Luckily, I'm on this Wikia, where the information is all laid out for me. I know what weapons are in what crates, so I know what I'm putting my rubies in to maybe get. As a normal player, not only are you relying on luck to get an item you like, you're also relying on top of that the crate has an item you like in the first place. It's a double gamble. Three, that means there's no sense of progress. Sure, I spent whatever hours on MPB2, but I haven't moved from my spot. All I did in the game was make my character look better than the others. I could spend my rubies on holding a second gun type, but that's temporary. "Temporary" makes people wary. It might be an edge, but you have to put in the time to make your investment worth it. In MPB, spending time with the character surely but slowly made it better. I liked that. I put in the time, and I got rewarded for it. * Weapons Look, amazing job on the weapons Netti. I love the detail and the animations. Yet there's no variation. All you have are four strictly different weapons. Not a hybrid between classes, not a variation in gameplay. Just straight up one type of weapon in one type of class. This makes gameplay boring. Symmetrical gameplay is boring in general. I expect some spice to mix things up. In fact, I expect asymmetric gameplay in pretty much every competitve game. It creates interesting strategies. This game doesn't support that. In fact, I am willing to go the length to say that balancing was an issue that loleris only wanted to go through once. (Also the sudden camera jerks when you get hit is minorly annonying but is respectable.) ---- On the other hand, I can see the appeal. This forces the player to think new strategies against a weapon of their own kind. By simply making everyone the same, this makes MPB2 purely about skill. You can't create a solid argument if you lose a one-on-one match with a person using the same tools as you. Fact is, they simply handled the weapon better than you. Perhaps that's what you were going for. By simply making anything you spend on purely cosmetic, it doesn't matter how cool you look, you still die as fast as a new player. Everything in this game is purely for cosmetics. In fact, I coined a term specifically for this: "Pay 4 Swag". It's a positive term, I guess? I used it to describe Mad Games before loleris announced knife powers. At least sniping is fun. The bullet speed is off-putting at times, but it still is satisfying. TL;DR: It looks pretty but the execution is lacking. 6/10 unless something is done (4 + 2 for Netti's work and effort into the guns) Probably missing like a few arguements, or some arguements may seem weaker than others, but it's 2:15 AM at the time of writing and I kinda want to go to sleep. Feel free to post your own arguments in the comments. Category:Blog posts